Latest Houston & Texas News

4th Austin Explosion Stokes Fear That a Serial Bomber is on the LooseVeuer

4th Austin Explosion Stokes Fear That a Serial Bomber is on the LooseBuzz 60

Police: 'Tripwire' May Have Set Off Austin BlastAssociated Press

These Two Boys Are Twins, Despite The Color Of Their SkinBuzz 60

Federal Agents Swarm Austin Explosion AreaAssociated Press

At Least Two Injured in Another Explosion in Austin, Authorities SayTime

9 g block satFox 26 Houston

9 saturdayFox 26 Houston

930 sundayFox 26 Houston

black pantherFox 26 Houston

530 part 2Fox 26 Houston

Austin, Texas Explosion Injures TwoAssociated Press

a blockFox 26 Houston

9 p.m. Mar. 18 FOXRAD ForecastFox 26 Houston

The trick, they say, is to stop viewing those without health insurance as a monolithic group, all with the same reasons for being without coverage. Health insurance plans should be developed that meet the needs of niches within this group, they say.

Related Stories

•Before the end of the year, the Public Healthcare System Council hopes to offer an inexpensive health plan to workers making less than $50,000 annually. Over three years, the council aims for the plan to provide coverage for 100,000 working poor and middle-class residents out of the more than 1.1 million in the county without insurance.
•In Galveston County, the University of Texas Medical Branch and chambers of commerce late this year will try to launch a similar plan aimed at providing health insurance for 3,000 working poor.
•After working with a health care task force at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas this month began offering a plan that provides inexpensive catastrophic health coverage. It is geared to meet some needs of the fastest growing segment of uninsured — middle-class and wealthy families making more than $50,000 annually.

Ambitious plan

The Public Healthcare System Council's plan to provide coverage for 100,000 people is ambitious.

"That's about 10 percent of the uninsured that we have in (Harris County). That's a pretty good start," said Dr. Lewis Foxhall, the council's chair.

The health insurance plan will not become a reality unless the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awards the council a $90 million grant that would pay for a third of the plan's costs.

The plan could be the council's first in a series of health insurance products tailored to suit segments of the area's large population without insurance.

Harris County Commissioners Court recently approved the council's request to be renamed the Harris County Health Care Alliance. With the new name, it also will be transformed from a county advisory group that could make only recommendations into a nonprofit organization that will fashion solutions to thorny health care problems. Some of these problems are intertwined with the area's high rate of uninsured.

While residents who lack health insurance pose problems for health care systems nationwide, this area's extraordinarily high percentage of uninsured has created a health care crisis.

Among the most pressing problems: Emergency rooms sometimes cannot care for those with urgent needs because they are filled with uninsured patients seeking treatment for non-urgent symptoms.

In a report last year, the Greater Houston Partnership concluded that companies' health insurance premiums are higher here than in other cities because local hospitals charge paying customers more in order to cover the costs of treating so many uninsured customers.

Too costly for some to offer

As premiums continue to rise, more businesses are discontinuing health insurance coverage or offering plans with fewer benefits, he said.

Kathryn Hardin, owner and operator of NY*LA Inc., a small graphics design firm in Bellaire, said she has offered health insurance to employees in the past, but it became too costly to participate in a decent plan.

"I've had people I've interviewed turn me down because I couldn't offer them good health insurance," she said.

She expressed interest in offering the council's proposed health insurance plan at NY*LA.

This "three-share" plan would cost $150 a month: $50 from employees, $50 from employers and $50 from federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if it provides the council with a grant.

Texas could be example

In its grant application, the council touted the health insurance plan as a demonstration product that could be used elsewhere if it were successful.

Among the states, Texas has the highest percentage of residents without health insurance, a quarter of its population, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2004.

The national average is 15.7 percent.

The council believes that it can put the plan on the market while paying minimal overhead costs.

In Galveston County, UTMB is awaiting to hear from the state on whether it can use unallocated Children's Health Insurance Program funds to help pay for its proposed version of a "three-share" health insurance plan.

Like the Harris County council's plan, employees and employers would each pay a third of the premium's costs. CHIP money would cover the remaining third.

While efforts in Harris and Galveston counties are aimed primarily at helping the working poor, Blue Cross Blue Shield's product targets middle-class people without health insurance. Nationwide, the number of people in this category nearly doubled in a decade.

Some cannot afford it. Others view it as a bad buy — too costly given what it provides.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is selling a plan that provides $2 million in hospitalization coverage during a lifetime. The premiums would run $15-$115 monthly, depending on age, health, and neighborhoods, said Darren Rodgers, the company's senior vice president for health care management.

Unruh, who has been without health insurance during much of the eight years he has worked as a waiter, said he may be interested in one of the plans being developed for people like him.

"Better to be safe than sorry," he said. "If I get sick now, I just pay out of pocket."